David Colin "Dave" BedfordOBE (born 30 December 1949) is an English former long-distance runner, whose athletic career spanned the early 1970s. Post retirement he served as race director of the London Marathon[1] until 2012, and is the Chairman of the IAAF Road Running Commission (since 2012), as well as sitting on the IAAF Cross Country Committee as the UK Athletics elected representative.

Bedford held the 10,000 metres world record, improving it by 7.6 seconds with his time of 27 minutes 30.80 seconds in 1973. He also held the British records for 3000 m steeplechase and 5000 metres. He usually ran in distinctive red socks, which later led to a well publicised dispute about the use of similarly attired runners in advertisements.

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Athletic career

Bedford was born in London. He was a leading distance runner during the 1970s but his achievements were largely against the clock; in championships his lack of a fast final lap left him trailing at the tape. He led for lap after lap in the 1971 European 10,000 m final but the pack swept past him. He finished sixth to the Flying FinnJuha Väätäinen, who won in a last lap sprint against East Germany's Jürgen Haase. He came twelfth in the 5000 m and sixth in the 10,000 m at the 1972 Munich Olympics.[2]

His later career was hampered by injuries, believed to have been caused by his high training mileage.[citation needed] He never ran the great marathon of which many fans thought him capable.[citation needed] He did run the first London Marathon in 1981 but only as the result of a bet.[1] He had been in a nightclub the previous night where David Coleman had remarked on how unwell he looked.[1] Having consumed a curry on the way home from the nightclub, Bedford completed the impromptu marathon but was pictured vomiting at the roadside part way through.[1] However later in the same year he did manage to win the London Cross Country title at the age of 31.

Post retirement

In 2003, Bedford was involved in a legal dispute over the alleged portrayal of his image by the directory enquiries company The Number for its 118 118 service. The company had used a pair of athletes wearing red socks and Bedford's distinctive moustache and hair cut. He was quoted as saying, "The bastards! You can use that word and say I said it. [They] used my image then said they had never heard of me. When they were told they couldn't use it any more they said 'Oh no it was all a big misunderstanding'. To get to that stage took £60,000 in legal fees."[3]

In January 2004, Ofcom's Content Board ruled that The Number had breached rule 6.5 of the Advertising Standards Code, by caricaturing him without permission. However, it declined to issue an order banning advertisements in question on the grounds that a ban would be disproportionately damaging to The Number compared with any harm to the feelings or reputation of David Bedford suffered as a result of the advertisements.[4]

In 2004, Bedford crashed the launch of a new 118 118 TV ad campaign.[5] Photos of Bedford being removed made the covers of The Times and Financial Times.